Community Viewpoint

As I write this, Hurricane Lester is threatening Maui and the Big Island and the residents of those areas are preparing for the worst. Friends in the mainland who have never been on an island before an oncoming storm may not know just how scarce supplies can get…or how worrisome that can be. That’s why the onset of hurricane season …

Getting water on Maui isn’t easy, especially upcountry. Almost 1,900 applicants have been waiting for years, often decades, to get hooked up to the county water system. You read that correctly: 1,900 applicants on Maui are still waiting for running water, meaning that they must either gather water using a catchment system or are unable to expand their property due to …

During a special session this summer, Hawaii lawmakers passed a bill that is both illegal and unfunded. The bill offers a $60 million severance package to union workers at the Maui public hospital system who will lose their jobs due to privatization, even though all the workers have already been offered their jobs back. Lawmakers overlooked the fact that the …

Water on Maui can be difficult to come by — not because we are running out of water, but because of bureaucracy. An ordinance called “Show Me the Water” has slowed down many home builders who desire to build communities that include affordable housing, who try to get their applications through a Water Department with a history of dragging it’s …

Have you ever wondered why island hopping is so expensive? About $15.28 of every airline ticket goes to taxes and fees for security and administration, and this can add up for island residents who travel often to visit family. But part of the cost of every ticket goes to the monopoly pricing we pay for the lack of competition in …

Gov. David Ige’s recent comments raised important questions about our pending merger and Hawaiʻi’s clean energy future, questions that we continue to work diligently and transparently to address with all of our stakeholders. We want to make our position clear and reiterate our full and unequivocal support of the State of Hawaiʻi’s goal of achieving 100 percent renewable energy by …

Lack of transparency is always a concern in public departments, especially when it can be so tempting for public employees to abuse the system to spike their pensions. One common way public employees increase their pensions is by maximizing overtime. The money spent on overtime expenditures is not “free money”, it comes from somewhere (or rather someone). Any guesses to …

Maui United Way’s (MUW) mission is to empower our community through caring partnerships that enrich people’s lives. Over the last few days, I’ve reflected often on this mission as our organization has been under unfair scrutiny. I humbly take this opportunity to address the seemingly widespread confusion brought about by an article published last Sunday here in The Maui News. …